Capital Campaign

Campaign Slogan

Built by Their Faith - Preserved by Ours

Campaign Prayer

God of the Plains,
Our ancestors built this house to give you glory.
Give us, we pray, the wisdom and
generosity to sacrifice as they did
as we strive to preserve St. Joseph church
May we and our children gather here
to sing your praises for years to come,
through Christ our Lord.
Amen

PURPOSE:

The capital campaign to repair our beautiful church windows and repair and historically restore our church steeple is underway.

NOTE: The Heritage Trust Fund two of the front windows is not part of the capital campaign. Update photo are shown at the bottom of the page to show work on windows and update the parish on the grant project progress.

Capital Campaign Committee MEMBERS:

HONORAY CHAIRS:

Ed & Donna Stehno

CO-CHAIRS:

Bill & Lynn Dowling
Gary & Liz Schmeidler

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Nick & Kelli Flax
Paul & Melia Flesher
Randy Gottschalk
Jennifer Johnson
Tucker & Jill Mall
Jeff & Melissa Pinkney
Dustin & Laney Roths
Kerry Wasinger

STAFF MEMBERS:

Fr. Fred Gatschet
Ann Pfeifer

CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT:

Betty Johnson

How to Get INVOLVED:

You can be involved through your prayers, financial commitment, and/or volunteering your time. Your involvement is key to the campaign’s success in maintaining and enhancing our parish campus.

Prayers: Your prayers are welcomed and vital to the project’s success. Please pray the Capital Campaign Prayer for the success of our campaign, parish leadership, volunteers, and the project contractors.

God of the Plains, our ancestors built this house to give you glory. Give us, we pray, the wisdom and generosity to sacrifice as they did as we strive to preserve St. Joseph Church. May we and our children gather here to sing your praises for years to come. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Financially: Your financial support of St. Joseph Parish is vital to our parish’s future. Your annual stewardship commitment and your capital campaign pledge are both needed for St. Joseph Parish.

Why is financially supporting the parish through both stewardship and the capital campaign necessary?

Ordinary giving through stewardship allows us to continue our ongoing ministries, general maintenance, and education programs.
Extraordinary giving is a restricted donation for a specific purpose. The 3-year pledge commitment to the campaign will allow us to restore our church and campus for the benefit of current parishioners and future generations.

We ask and encourage you to prayerfully consider these financial commitments, the importance of both of them, and make a commitment to the campaign while maintaining your annual giving.

Capital Campaign donations need a separate check and cannot be combined with other donations to St. Joseph Church. Please notate on checks, Bank issued Check or Requirement Minimum Distribution checks if you want it to go to "Donation", "Tithe" or "Capital Campaign". This designation helps ensure it gets to the correct account. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ann Pfeifer in the parish office.

Capital Campaign donations can be online. To contribute to the Capital Campaign, choose the fund: St. Joseph Capital Campaign on the online giving website at: https://giving.myparishsoft.io//app/giving/WeShare-3332?tab=home or scan the QR code below.

I have received a few questions on how to set up online giving payment for the Capital Campaign. Online payment can be set up online by visiting the St. Joseph website stj-church.com and clicking on the “Online Giving” (see below) in the upper right corner of the St. Joseph Parish Home Page then choosing the fund “St. Joseph Capital Campaign” (see below). Once on the giving page, you can set up a one-time or reoccurring payment. Please contact Ann Pfeifer, Business Admin, at the parish office, 785-625-7356, if you have any questions or issues setting up online giving payment.

Time: The success of the campaign needs many volunteers. Our campaign leadership has put in many hours, but they need our parishioners to help as well,

Callers will call about 15 parishioners
Home Visitors will drop off and pick up material for five (5) families.

Would you please consider being a caller or home visitor? If you have the time, you can do both. If interested, please contact the parish office to volunteer. We appreciate you giving of your time to this campaign.

Please contact the parish office if you have questions, want to volunteer, or need more information on our parish’s Built by Their Faith – Preserved by Ours capital campaign.

Questions? You can also contact our consultant consultant Betty Johnson. Call/Text at 785-313-3632 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Capital Campaign Envelopes returned:

Capital Campaign envelopes returned are as follows:

Weekly Count	Envelopes Returned	Running Total Returned	Percentage Returned
04/23/2026	25	25	3.8%
04/27/2026	178	203	31.2%
05/04/2026	52	255	39.2%
05/11/2026	29	284	43.7%
05/18/2026	5	289	44.5%
05/24/2026	3	292	44.9%
06/01/2026	4	296	45.5%
06/08/2026	7	303	46.6%

650 packets were mailed out to parish families. Please help us by returning your envelopes.

Capital Campaign Pledges and Donations Collected:

Date of Update	Pledge Dollar Amounts	Pledge # of Families	Dollar Amount Collected*	Payment # of Families
6/12/2026	$1,350,472.03	303	$495,197.55	253
6/22/2026	$1,368,842.03	313	$506,058.55	266

Ordinary Giving VS. Extraordinary giving:

The capital campaign is an extraordinary giving that is restricted for purpose of the project. While we need money for the capital campaign, donations to the capital campaign need to be in addition to your normal ordinary weekly giving through the collection. The ordinary giving pays for the normal operations of the parish which include but not limited to faith formation, utilities for all buildings, ordinary repairs when items break, payroll, etc. Both are important and necessary for the parish to be successful. Thank you for taking the time to understand both and how they are both important for our parish.

PHASES OF CAMPAIGN:

The Parish Council, Finance Council, and Building Committee have spent many hours discerning the future needs of our parish campus. During the process, we have reached out to parishioners for prayers, input, and guidance to determine how to best maximize our space for today and for future generations. This will be a multi-year campaign. Below are the phases as they look right now.

Phase 1 includes:

Repair of the stained-glass windows and wood around them
Touch up paint in church as needed
Replace the dome and louvers on the steeple, taking it back to its original design

Phase 2 includes:

Transition away from the Kennedy building
Tear down the band building and replace it with a building to house the food pantry and maintenance shop

Phase 3 includes:

Build a new parish hall with meeting and education space
Determine future of Kennedy building – sell or tear down all or part of it
Rebuild the Grotto
Add handicap parking on each side of church

Phase 1 will include repair of the stained-glass windows and wood around them; touch up paint in the church as needed. We will also replace the dome and the louvers on the tower. This is a significant project that may take two to three years to complete.

Phase 2 will tear down the band building and build a metal building that will house the St. Joseph Food Pantry and a maintenance shop.

Phase 3, if we can raise the funds for a third campaign, will be to construct a parish center with meeting rooms. Determine what to do with Kennedy. Move the grotto and add handicap parking on the east side.

The Plan:

Funds from this campaign will pay for Phase 1. Unused dollars will be used for Phase 2. Timing of future phases will depend on available dollars.

This is an exciting time for our parish as we undertake these projects. All who enter our beloved St. Joseph Church comment on the beauty of it and are in awe. We are the beneficiaries of the hard work and sacrifices made by our faithful ancestors. It is now up to us to maintain and care for what they provided for us. Together we can make it happen and fulfill this vision!

captial campaign proECTED COSTS:

The parish will update this section as updated information becomes available. The parish is working on getting the architecture work and quotes for phase 1 of the capital campaign.

PHASE 1:

WINDOWS PROJECT - $1.1 Millon

STEEPLE PROJECT - $550,000

15% CONTINGENCY FOR PROJECT COST - $250,000

ADMINISTRATIVE COST - $100,000*

PROJECTED TOTAL PROJECT COST - $2 Million

* Administrative Cost includes checks, deposit slips, consulting fees, processing fees for online donations.

This is a big project for our parish, but one that is important in many ways. Every weekend the parish gets comments from visitors about how beautiful our church is. We are the beneficiaries of the hard work and sacrifices made by our ancestors. It's now up to us to maintain and care for what they left us. Your prayers, your participation, and your support are greatly appreciated as we work together to make St. Joseph a place for all to come and rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Volunteer Opportunities:

Calling Committe Members:

Expected to take approximately 5 hours total, over the course of several days

Role: Recruit parishioners to serve as home visitors.

Responsibilities:

Attend one of two, 30-minute Calling Committee - Orientation session on March 23, at 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM in Kennedy.
Recruit as many home visitors as possible from the parish (will be supplied with a pre-determined list of parishioners to call)
Consider being a home visitor yourself.
Return supplied list with responses to Betty Johnson (the consultant helping us to run the campaign) by the established deadline.
Prayerfully considering making a gift to the capital campaign.

Home Visitors:

Expected to take approximately 5 hours total, over the course of several days

Role: Hand-deliver and pick up the sealed campaign pledge material and encourage participation. All envelopes containing a suggested pledge amount or pledged amount will be sealed and not known to the Home Visitor volunteers.

Responsibilities:

Attend one of two, 30-minute Home Visitor Orientation session on April 13, at 6:00pm or 7:00pm in Kennedy.
Deliver pledge materials to approximately 5 households on Campaign Sunday April 19.
Pick up pledge cards in sealed envelope from same households on or during the week of April 26.
Deliver sealed returned materials to the parish office
Prayerfully consider making a gift to the capital campaign.

Heritage Trust Fund REimbursement Grant UPDATE (not paid by capital campaign):

St. Joseph Parish applied and was awarded the Heritage Trust Fund (HTF) reimbursement grant from the State of Kansas Historical Society. We were eligible to apply for this grant since we are listed on the State of Kansas Historical Registry Site. The grant is an 80% reimbursement grant and can be awarded up to $100,000 max. The work for these two windows will be paid from reserves and then replace the funds once the reimbursement grant is received after all the work is completed.

PROJECT COST:

Cost to repair 2 "G" windows = $147,200

HTF Grant Reimbursement= $115,000

Net out of pocket cost= $32,200

WORK TO BE COMPLETED:

Remove windows and board up windows
Paint oil based paint on wood exposed to elements
Soak and clean stained glass windows
Reassemble windows and lead the joints
Order custom curved replacement wood (old wood used as template)
Replace the windows
Repair or replace wood around windows
Replace new covering with proper ventilation attached to limestone

GRANT TIMELINE:

October 2023 - Apply for Heritage Trust Fund Grant to Diocese of Salina for St. Joseph Parish Stained Glass windows project
May 2024 - Awarded $100,000 Heritage Trust Fund Grant (80% reimbursement grant)
June 2025 - Requested increase and approved $15,000 additional grant funds
June 2025 - Sign contract with Hoefer-Stained Glass, Hutchinson KS, for 2 windows paid from reserves, reimbursement grant will replenish $115,000 once the project is completed.
December 2025 - Hoefer Stained Glass took first window and will work on windows at their shop in Hutchinson KS.
February 2026 - Hoefer Stained Glass took second window.
February 2026 - Hoefer Stained Glass orders custom wood replacements. There are many months of lead time to create the wood replacements.
March 2026 - Hoefer Stained Glass has cleaned and reassembled the 2 south windows in the shop. Each piece of wood replacement is being custom made, which takes time.
Estimated Completion of project: August/September 2026.

PROJECT PHOTO UPDATES: